DATE : 2014-06-16
Shell Canada confirmed on Monday its styrene plant in Alberta, Canada, will be off line for the remainder of June.
Trade sources had said last week that the facility, which has a styrene capacity of 45,000 tonnes/year, would be off line for the month.
The company did not say exactly when the facility went down or if it was planned or unplanned downtime.
However, the downtime comes as US styrene supply has gotten tighter because of recent or ongoing production issues.
As a result, many US styrene producers are sold out of material for June.
This along with stronger feedstock benzene prices has helped to firm up US styrene prices.
Current styrene spot prices are at 71.50-72.00 cents/lb ($1,576-1,587/tonne) FOB (free on board). Spot prices have moved gradually higher above the 70 cent/lb mark the past two weeks.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-06-16
Chemical producer Mitsubishi Rayon Co and trading firm Mitsui & Co have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomer joint venture in the US, the two Japanese companies said on Monday.
MRC and Mitsui will begin detailed feasibility studies to establish the US-based joint venture with a new world-scale production facility, they said in a joint statement.
MRC will be the majority shareholder of the joint venture, the two companies added.
The new joint venture plans to build and start up a new 250,000 tonne/year MMA plant in the US at the end of 2018, MRC and Mitsui said, without specifying its location or an investment cost.
MRC and Mitsui have also entered into a non-binding material terms of agreement with Dow Chemical Co concerning potential feedstock supply from the US-headquartered company to the joint venture. This agreement will also concern potential supply of MMA monomer from the joint venture to Dow.
The new joint venture also intends to secure access to ethylene supply from Dow's US Gulf Coast production network, the two companies said.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-06-16
Taiwan’s CPC Corp is proceeding with a planned closure of its Kaohsiung refinery and petrochemical complex by December 2015, a company spokesperson said on Monday.
“The deadline for stop(ing operation of all units) is December 2015,” the spokesperson from the company’s public relation department told ICIS.
The Kaohsiung complex is an integrated oil refining and petrochemical production facility that can handle 200,000 bbl/day of crude, information from the company’s website showed.
It houses a 500,000 tonne/year cracker and various derivatives units, including an 80,000 tonne/year butadiene unit, according to ICIS data.
The plants will be closed one by one, the source said.
A joint venture (JV) 250,000 tonne/year base oils plant at the site will be permanently shut in November this year, a spokesperson from part-owner Anglo-Dutch energy major Shell told ICIS.
The base oils plant is a 49:51 joint venture between CPC and Shell.
“We can confirm that the CPC-Shell joint venture - CPC Shell Lubricants Corp. (CSLC ) will close its base oil plant in November 2014 and its lubricants blending plant in February 2015, the Shell spokesperson said.
“This plan of JV closure is in line with the announced [Taiwan’s] government decision to close the Kaohsiung Oil Refinery (KOR) complex in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan by the end of 2015. The JV is located in that complex.”
The closure of the Kaohsiung complex by the end of next year will be a fulfilment of a promise CPC made to the Taiwanese government years ago.
“Evaluations showed that the facility is aging and uneconomical for further operations,” a source at CPC's operation department said.
The Kaohsiung complex started operations in 1946. In April 2012, a pipeline leak caused an explosion at the manufacturing site.
CPC also operates a 200,000 bbl/day refinery at Taoyuan and a 300,000 bbl/day refinery at Dalin.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-06-14
Lucite International shut down its 100,000 tonne/year methyl methacrylate (MMA) plant in Shanghai unexpectedly earlier in the week because of a mechanical issue, a source close to the company said on Friday.
No restart date is available as of now, the source added.
The company operates another MMA plant in Singapore which can produce up to 130,000 tonnes/year of MMA.
Lucite International is a subsidiary of Japanese producer Mitsubishi Rayon Co (MRC), which is one of the largest MMA producers in Asia.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-06-13
Japanese producer Kuraray has shut its 58,000 tonne/year polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and 67,000/tonne year acetone cyanohydrin-based methyl methacrylate (MMA) plants at Nakajo in Niigata prefecture for an annual turnaround, a company source said on Friday.
The plants were taken offline earlier in the week and will restart in sometime in July, the source added.
However, no immediate dates for the restart are available as of now, the source said.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-06-13
INEOS Nitriles expects to run its 280,000 tonne/year acrylonitrile (ACN) plant at Seal Sands in the UK at normal volumes by 20 June following planned maintenance, a company source said on Friday.
The plant is being brought back to normal production ahead of schedule, the source confirmed.
“[We] decided to start up earlier because demand is quite strong,” the company source said.
The plant was taken off line on 23 May.
Worldwide ACN supply has been tight because of maintenance outages across the globe.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-06-12
Japan’s Mitsui Chemicals has shut its 40,000 tonne/year methyl methacrylate (MMA) plant at Sakai city in Osaka, Japan, earlier this week for a scheduled maintenance, a company source said on Thursday.
The plant is expected to restart in end-July, the source added.
Mitsui Chemicals is currently one of six MMA producers in Japan.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-06-12
China-based Huizhou MMA Co is conducting a turnaround at its 90,000 tonne/year methyl methacrylate (MMA) unit in Guangdong province, a company source said on Thursday.
The MMA plant was shut on 9 June, the source added.
The MMA plant is expected to be off line until mid-July, the source said.
Huizhou MMA Co is a subsidiary of Japanese producer Mitsubishi Rayon Co (MRC).
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-06-11
South Korea’s Daesan MMA (DMMA) is expected to restart its 90,000 tonne/year methyl methacrylate (MMA) plant in Daesan next week following a turnaround, a source close to the company said on Friday.
The plant was taken offline on 15 May for scheduled maintenance, according to the source.
DMMA has another MMA plant in Yeosu which has a nameplate capacity of 98,000 tonnes/year.
The company is a joint venture between Japan’s Mitsubishi Rayon Co (MRC) and South Korea’s Honam Petrochemical.
Date: June 12, 2014
BASF has revealed a plan to invest $270m to expand herbicides production capacities at its US facilities in Beaumont, Texas, and Hannibal, Missouri.
As part of the plan, the company will strengthen dicamba and DMTA herbicides production capabilities at the Texas plant and upgrade production at the Missouri facility.
The project will allow BASF to cater to the increasing demand for its herbicide portfolio and the upgraded facilities are expected to come on-stream in 2016/17.
BASF is also weighing additional investments in line with its strategy to invest around €1.8bn until 2018, to increase production of its crop protection products globally.
BASF crop protection division president Markus Heldt said: "The North American market has seen many challenges along with great opportunities in the past few years.
"We are committed to investing in R&D, production and personnel in North America, so that we can deliver effective and efficient solutions for growers and our retailer customers."
The company, meanwhile, is set to launch advanced dicamba formulation Engenia herbicide in 2015.
"Separately, the company signed a global development and license agreement with Mitsui Chemicals Agro for a new insecticide."
Engenia is said to serve as a key component of dicamba/glyphosate tolerant cropping systems and help growers to control resistant weeds in key row crops.
BASF will also offer Nealta for speciality crops, as well as Limus urease inhibitor and seed coating products based on Xemium fungicide.
Separately, the company signed a global development and license agreement with Mitsui Chemicals Agro for a new insecticide.
Under the deal, BASF has an exclusive license to commercialise the new insecticide, which is designed for applications in leafy vegetables, fruiting vegetables, soybeans and other legumes, cotton, corn and rice, as well as urban pest control settings.
Source: Chemicals Technology
DATE : 2008-06-10
The steam cracker and butadiene (BD) extraction units at Shell’s Moerdijk, Netherlands site are running according to plan following the explosion at its joint venture styrene monomer (SM)/propylene oxide (PO) plant (MSPO-2) last week, a Shell spokesman said on Tuesday.
This appears to be being substantiated from the upstream market with an upstream market source commenting that the impact on naphtha was “very small, compared to their position,” as Shell had been seen backing out just one naphtha feedstock cargo.
“It’s nearly negligible,” the upstream source said.
Some impact on the propylene market in Europe is still anticipated, with the supply and demand balance widely expected to lengthen as a result of the MSPO-2 unit outage, although it was said to be on a maintenance turnaround at the time of the incident.
Given the extent of the damage at the site, some styrene players earlier estimated that the unit be could offline for a minimum of three months.
Shell's Moerdijk cracker has the capacity to produce 900,000 tonnes/year of ethylene and 500,000 tonnes/year of propylene, and the the BD extraction unit 115,000 tonnes/year of BD according to the company's website.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-06-10
SABIC Europe’s butadiene (BD) producing unit at Geleen in the Netherlands is preparing to go offline for planned maintenance, a company source said on Tuesday.
“It’s coming down according to schedule,” the source said, adding that the unit would be down for two to three weeks.
The Geleen unit has the capacity to produce 130,000 tonnes/year of BD, according to ICIS data.
Maintenance is currently under way at SABIC’s 100,000 tonnes/year BD unit at Wilton in the UK alongside the scheduled turnaround at the nearby 865,000 tonne/year cracker.
Restart of the UK units is expected around 22 June.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-06-07
Americas Styrenics styrene facility in St James, Louisiana, has returned to normal rates, the company said on Friday.
The return to normal rates for the St James facility, which has a combined nameplate capacity of 950,000 tonnes/year, was in line with expectations.
The facility had been operating at 50% capacity since mid-April as part of a planned turnaround.
Although St James was returning to normal rates, some suppliers have said they are now sold out for June material.
This combined with the explosion at Shell’s joint venture styrene monomer (SM)/propylene oxide (PO) plant (MSPO-2) at Moerdijk in the Netherlands late on Tuesday has lent support to stronger prices in the US.
The MSPO-2 facility is owned by Ellba, a 50:50 joint venture between Shell Chemicals and BASF. It can produce 550,000 tonnes/year of styrene and 250,000 tonnes/year of PO, according to Shell’s website.
Current US styrene spot prices for June were discussed at 71.25-73.00 cents/lb ($1,571-1,609/tonne), up from 68.00-69.50 cents/lb a week earlier.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-06-06
South Korea’s Tongsuh Petrochemical has restarted its 245,000 tonne/year No 3 acrylonitrile (ACN) line in Ulsan in mid-week after a scheduled turnaround, a company source said on Friday.
The plant was shut on 13 May for a turnaround.
“The plant was restarted in mid this week, and the operating rate is around 85%,” the source said.
The company’s 70,000 tonne/year No 2 ACN line has been shut since end-March and the company has yet to fix a restart date, the source said.
The firm’s 245,000 tonne/year No 4 line at the same site is running at around 80% of capacity, the source added.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-06-06
US Cornerstone Chemical is restarting its acrylonitrile (ACN) plant in Fortier, Louisiana, following a three-week turnaround, a company source said on Friday.
The facility should be up fully early next week, the source said.
Cornerstone's site has a capacity of 240,000 tonnes/year.
SOURCE Icis News